2
thursday 5h october 2017
Special issue le marin
SBM Offshore
international context
Market :
signs of recovery, but...
Companies are showing
positive signals
●●
The recovery could
however remain ailing in
the short term.
●●
In the mid-term, the
offshore sector will be
essential for meeting
global oil demand.
●●
I
n recent months, oil companies and oil services companies, one after the other, evoked positive signals in the offshore sector. 'Improvements
in the effectiveness of the industry and price control have reduced the profitability thresholds
of offshore developments, which
should lead to new investments
and project approvals this year
and in 2018', declared the CEO of
Aker Solutions, Luis Araujo.
The Norwegian oil services
company observed an increase in
the demand for basic engineering
services, an indicator that bodes
well for the future increase in the
offshore activity.
From Schlumberger's viewpoint,
the time has also come for some
optimism: 'In many shallow water basins throughout the world,
an increase in the number of new
offshore projects has increased
for which calls for tender and a
final investment decision (FID)
are being prepared', the FrancoAmerican group noted in July.
Large-scale projects
Begun in 2014 with the drop in
the price of crude oil, the oil crisis strongly decreased the number of FIDs in the offshore sector.
According to Clarksons Research,
this number reached the record of
120 globally in 2012. In 2016, only
about 60 sea-based projects received a final investment decision. In
the first half of 2017, 31 offshore
projects resulted in an final investment decision.
This is a number in line with
the low level of activity in 2016.
However, Clarksons Research
sees positive signals in this. Almost
half of these projects are largescale ones - more than 500 million dollars of investment - whereas this was barely the case for a
third in 2016.
The renewed interest in large investments is particularly explained by the drop in costs that the
industry has achieved over these
three years. 'The reduction in exploration and production costs is
30% on average since 2014 and
even reaches 40% in Norway',
says Sylvain Serbutoviez, E & P
(Exploration production) engineer

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